Posted tagged ‘J. J. Grandville’

Grandville is Bryan Talbot welcome return to the sort of storytelling he made great in his Luther Arkwright books. This is one big ole s.f. tinged, very British, adventure story. But of course this being a Talbot book there’s more to it than that.

The book is a tribute to the works of French illustrators J. J. Grandville and Albert Robida, winding up with a Steampunk, funny animal political thriller with a bit of Sherlock Holmes thrown in. The result is a gorgeous book, possibly a lesser work from Talbot, but only because he’s clearly writing this for some fun after the tour de force that was Alice in Sunderland.

The tone of the book is fairly dark, but he casts Snowy (the dog from TinTin) as an opium addict! Not to mention throwing random tips of the hat to works like Maus and Omaha the Cat Dancer. This is Talbot at play, and that’s wonderful to see.